Sallys' Owls
by PrettyInPink1
Summary: A short songfic based on the song "Sally's Pigeons". Ginny tells the tale of a friend she has loved and lost.


SUMMARY: THIS IS A FANFIC BASED ON A CYNDI LAUPER SONG CALLED "SALLY'S PIGEONS", AS YOU'LL PROBABLY NOTICE, I'VE MADE A FEW CHANGES IN THE LYRICS TO BETTER FIT THE STORY.  
  
IT IS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF GINNY WEASLEY. I HAVE IT UNDER THE CATEGORY OF HARRY/GINNY, BUT ITS NOT REALLY ABOUT THEM, IT IS ABOUT A FRIENDSHIP.  
  
PLEASE DON'T FLAME ME, OR TELL ME THAT IT DOESN'T FIT WITH THE STORY OF HARRY POTTER. I WAS LISTENING TO THIS SONG, AND I BECAME INSPIRED SO I WROTE THIS. I AM AWARE THAT THERE IS NO ONE NAMED ALICE IN THE BOOKS.  
  
ON A HAPPIER NOTE, I HOPE YOU ENJOY!  
  
DISCLAIMER: BOTH THE WORLD OF HARRY POTTER, AND THE SONG "SALLYS PIGEONS" DO NOT BELONG TO ME. I DO OWN ALL THE BOOKS HOWEVER, AND THE CD WITH THE SONG ON IT! (:P)  
  
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When I was eight I had a friend  
  
with a pirate smile  
  
make believe and play pretend  
  
we were innocent and wild  
  
hopped a fence and slammed the gate  
  
running down my alleyway  
  
in time to watch Sally's owls fly  
  
*****************************  
  
Her name was Alice. At eight years old she was the only friend I had, the only friend I needed. We went everywhere together. The only two young witches in the neighborhood, we were completely inseperable.  
  
We played together with my muggle toys dad had brought home from work. We learned to ride broomsticks together. Later in life we would attend school together, fall in love together, laugh together, and lose together.  
  
But at eight, all we had to do was be together. I envied her wide grin and chipped quirky teeth, and she envied my bright orange hair.  
  
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We loved to watch them dive and soar  
  
circle in the sky  
  
free as a bird from three to four  
  
and never knowing why  
  
neighbors pulled their wash back in  
  
put away my Barbie and Ken  
  
look out overhead  
  
while Sally's owls fly  
  
************************************  
  
Every day at exactly three o'clock we would drop our toys and run out into my back yard, across the fence and into the alleyway of my strange neighbor, Sally McCoy.  
  
Everyday he would release his flock of what seemed at the time like a thousand birds into the sky, where they would soar around in circles, enjoying the freedom, but knowing better than to stray to far.  
  
It was a spectacle that you had to see to understand. Something so beautiful it cannot be put into words.  
  
***********************************  
  
I had a fool's confidence  
  
that the world had no boundaries  
  
but instincts and common sense  
  
come in different quantities  
  
*************************************  
  
When you're young though, everything in the world is beautiful. When you're eight years old you don't understand that the world is not your playground. You don't understand the meaning of the word can't.  
  
Me and Alice were that way. We wanted to explore everything. We craved knowledge in a way I can no longer even imagine. We didn't care if the grown-ups told us it couldn't be done, we believed in our heart that anything was possible.  
  
**********************************************  
  
my heart began to  
  
skip to the beat  
  
of the boy who lived  
  
she had her eye across the street  
  
on someone shy and torn  
  
we lived our dreams  
  
and challenged fate in tears she told me she was late  
  
and Sally let his owls out to fly...  
  
************************************************  
  
Everything changed when we started at Hogwarts. We were still inseperable, but it was in a different way. I didn't want her company, I wanted her comfort. We no longer explored the world because we wanted to, we explored it because we wanted to pass our classes.  
  
It was a gigantic shift, but somehow neither of us even noticed it. We were too caught up in life.  
  
And then I fell in love. It started as a crush. A stupid little eleven year old thing, but by the time I turned sixteen it became something much, much more. I was in love with a boy named Harry Potter, and as far as I could tell he was in love with me.  
  
Alice too fell in love, with a shy muggle who lived down the road from us. A boy who had experienced pain in life. A boy she thought she could connect too.  
  
We walked on clouds, our lives were as good as we imagined they could be.  
  
Then one summer day, we sat watching Sally's owls, when she broke into tears. She had missed her period for two months now. She had taken a test and it was positive. She had no where to turn, her parents would throw her out the second they discovered what was going on.  
  
For months after that, I tried to help her as much as I could. We performed spells on her clothes to make her look slimmer than she was.  
  
But her secret couldn't be kept forever. On christmas of our sixth year, I sat on my lawn, when suddenly I heard yells coming from her house. I knew at once what had happened. A shiver ran down my spine, as her sobs rang through the air.  
  
********************************************  
  
On the dresser sits a frame  
  
with a photograph  
  
two little girls in ponytails  
  
some twenty one years back  
  
she left one night with just a nod  
  
was lost from some back alley job  
  
I close my eyes and Sally's owls fly  
  
she never saw those birds again  
  
and me, I can't remember when  
  
a pirate smile hasn't made me cry  
  
I close my eyes  
  
and Sally's owls fly...  
  
**************************************  
  
She came running past my house minutes later, and we stood there staring at eachother for what seemed like an eternity. Then at last she bowed her head and ran off into the night.  
  
Her parents tried to look for her at first, but their search was in vain. Last I heard, she was fired from a back alley job 19 years ago, and from that point on there is no trace of her.  
  
Tonight I sit staring at the owls soar from my backyard, my hand locked into that of my love.  
  
It's been 21 years since I lost the best friend I will have. 21 years since I've seen Alice's Pirate smile.  
  
I will always miss her, and I will always love her, but deep in my heart I know she has moved onto bigger and better things, whether here on earth, or off in the unknown. 


End file.
